Noein

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"I'm dreaming again... a dream of that summer day."

Full name: Noein: To Your Other Self (Noein: Mou Hitori no Kimi e)

Quantum Physics: The Anime.

Haruka is an average girl, living an average life. Or so she thinks. In fact, she is a Cosmic Keystone being sought by the forces of two alternate dimensions, La'Cryma and Shangri'La. Each represents a possible future for Haruka's world, and Haruka has the power to determine which one becomes reality. La'Cryma is a shattered, dystopian place... but there is something sinister about the seemingly serene Shangri'La as well. Which side should she choose?

Haruka and her friends find themselves in the middle of a war, with multiple factions and rapidly shifting allegiances. Some wish to protect her, while others will go to any length to abduct her. A few important characters include:

  • Haruka: Main character and MacGuffin Girl, despite those two usually being mutually exclusive.
  • Yuu: Haruka's troubled friend/love interest. Emo Teen extraordinaire, complete with box cutter.
  • Karasu: A Future Badass version of Yuu from La'Cryma, sent to abduct Haruka but desiring to protect her.
  • Atori: An Ax Crazy Psycho Electro Blood Knight rival of Karasu, also from La'Cryma.
  • Noein: The eponymous Big Bad, mysterious masked leader of Shangri'La.

The anime relies heavily on the ideas and theories present in quantum mechanics, most notably the idea that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, with a new one created with every decision we make. At one point, it also references the paradox of Schrodinger's Cat. For added fun, watch it with someone who has actually studied quantum physics.

This program includes examples of
  • Art Shift: Intentionally about every 10 minutes. Alternates per episode; only two animators, so only two styles.
  • After The End: La'Cryma.
  • Alien Blood: The Dragon Knights bleed blue Layze/Reizu.
  • All Love Is Unrequited: OH GOD! Series loves this trope...
  • Alternate Universe: Another point of the series.
  • Ambiguously Brown: Tobi.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Atori.
  • Antagonist Title.
  • Apocalypse Maiden: La'Cryma certainly think Haruka is one.
  • Arbitrary Skepticism: Inverted. Miho believes in just about anything except letting the simplest explanation they got on hand work for her: that there're timespace aliens causing all the madness around. The others rightfully do not believe her and can hardly abstain from mocking her when she spouts crazy theories (for that multiverse anyway) like aliens or ghosts.
  • Arc Words: "Mata yume mita... ano natsu no hi no yume". "I'm dreaming again... a dream of that summer day," at the beginning of each preview.
    • "Blue... snow?"
  • Artificial Limbs: Kuina.
  • Assimilation Plot: Shangri'La is composed of all of the other realities that Noein wishes to prevent from happening. The inhabitants of Shangri'La are all humans whom Noein has absorbed into his cause.
  • The Atoner: Atori, of all people. Kisagi knows there's something up, but nobody suspected it'd be this.
  • Badass Cape: The Dragon Knights.
  • Bad Future: La'Cryma, but arguably Shangri'La as well. At one point Noein shows Haruka a bad future where each of her friends ends up getting broken. Creepily enough, the specific injuries the other characters sustain imply that the timestream Noein shows to Haruka is Lacryma's past.
    • I couldn't tell if Lacrima Ai had a prosthetic leg; she certainly walked well enough. Fukurou does have his left eye closed though, like Noein-Isami's injury.
    • Haruka doesn't seem to be involved in the bad future at all. Though it's not altogether clear if she just left, or is dead. If it's the latter, it can't be the one leading to Lacryma. Haruka's death is part of the creation of the reality stabilization machine. Which is what drives Karasu insane about the whole situation; imagine losing the love of your life TWICE to the same situation.
    • May also count as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Since she's the Chosen One, what she acknowledges is supposed to become reality. So, arguably, if she accepts this as the future, it will be the future. Or maybe that's not how it works, since her current friends are sort of trapped in the bad future as she witnesses it in the present. In Shangrila. God damn, this show is confusing.
  • Big Bad: The titular Noein.
  • Big Friendly Dog: Baron.
  • Bland Name Product.
  • Blood Knight: Atari.
  • Bloody Hand Print: The last we see of Haruka in Noein's past.
  • Body Horror: The Dragon Knights' powers involve some very uncomfortable transformations of their physical selves. Atori's power-up mode in particular is disturbing, given how unstable he is.
  • Brown Note: It's implied traveling through universes will get you, sooner or later. Nevermind Noein, if the Dragon Knights are anything to go on, it's still damn bad.
  • Can Not Spit It Out: Yuu's feelings for Haruka, which Karasu encourages him to confess. Ditto for Ai and Isami.
  • Card Carrying Villain: Shinohara, the Corrupt Corporate Executive head of the Magic Circle Project.
  • Catch Phrase: Isami thinks that it is impossible for him to have a catch phrase.
  • Cat Fight: Haruka gets into one with Ai, who is jealous over what she believes to be a budding romantic relationship between Haruka and Isami, despite Haruka's attempts to explain. The audience knows from the get-go that it's not too serious, though, as it's accompanied by playful, cheerful background music (and they make up at the end of the episode).
  • Character Development: Yuu and Atori, and in varying doses the entire cast.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Miho. Haruka is a close second.
  • Combat Tentacles: Karasu's wire-like attacks.
  • Come With Me If You Want To Live: Karasu to Haruka.
  • Conspicuous CG.
  • Cool Old Guy: Kōriyama. Although he's not that old.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Shinohara, the head of the Magic Circle Project.
  • Crapsack World: La'Cryma and Shangri-La.
  • Crispin Freeman: Karasu's voice actor and subject of multiple jokes in the Hilarious Outtakes:
  • Crowning Moment of Awesome: Kōriyama beating of Shinohara.
  • Damsel In Distress: Haruka.
  • Dan Browned: Quantum physics doesn't work this way. It's all for the sake of the story, though, so we forgive it.
  • Dead Little Sister: Atori had one, leading him to eventually viewing Miho as a sort of substitute.
    • Haruka functions this way for Karasu as well, and he goes to great lengths to protect her in the past after being unable to save the Haruka from his timeline.
  • Defector From Decadence: Several Dragon Knights choose to stay on Haruka's world, for no small reason because they think their world is doomed and this world has a blue sky.
  • Determinator: Karasu.
  • Diabolus Ex Machina: The "future" shown to Haruka by Noein in episode 22, where she sees all of her friends' lives ruined (Hasabe's in particular stands out). Highlights include spoiler: Fujiwara turning into a punk and losing his eye, Hasabe learning of this and losing use of her leg in the process, effectively ruining her future of being an all-star soccer player and Miho turning into a depressive Hikikomori due to bullying. Although the episode does end on a high note.
    • Karasu and Isame were on the point of reconciliation, when Noein kills Isame just to prove to Haruka that she can't change the future.
  • Dubtitle: In the UK release.
  • Dub Induced Plot Hole: Not plot, so much a terminology. A line near the beginning of the second episode; sub: this spacetime is warped, dub: this dimension is a mistake.
  • Dude Looks Like A Lady: Tobi.
  • Dying Like Animals: Apathetic Citizens, check. Book Dumb bat Corrupt Corporate Execute? Check. Countless other worlds that resulted in Crapsack World After the End scenarios because nobody bothered to stop diverse Nietzsche Wannabe of which only one can destroy the whole Multiverse? Check.
  • Dystopia.
  • Education Mama: Yuu's mother.
  • Energy Being: What Noein seems to have been reduced to, while he is shown to still be able to return to human form if he really wants to.
  • Epiphany Therapy: Yuu's mom gets over a life-long hang-up in just a day.
    • Possibly In Vino Veritas.
    • The biggest problem in Yuu's mom is that nobody called her on what she did to her son and her ever-increasing isolationism, nor did she realise she was doing it herself - she thought she did it out of love. When she realises with the help of time wimey time travel what she's done and why, she starts letting Yuu do what he wants to.
  • Evil Albino: Noein.
  • Evil Phone: In one episode, after things start getting strange, Haruka asks her mother if she's ever encountered anything paranormal, and her mother mentions that her old house phone once rang, even though it was unplugged. At the end of the episode, the same unplugged phone rings again when Haruka's alone, so she picks it up, and realizes the person on the other side is her mother in the past. Haruka's mother is puzzled, while Haruka is very amused by the situation... and then her mother gets disconnected, and Haruka finds herself talking to herself from an alternate future. Her future self sounds so sad, and combined with the advice she offers, our Haruka is left quite shaken up by a vague hint at something terrible.
    • That turns out to be a Red Herring though, especially judging from Noein's description of (most?) futures. It's not Yuu who looses his smile because of something Haruka didn't do while alive, at least.
  • Explosive Overclocking: Dragon Knights can turn themselves into huge beings of energy, but it is very dangerous.
  • The Faceless: Future Haruka.
  • Flash Step: The Dragon Knights use something similar to this.
  • Foreign Queasine: Although it's not technically foreign, and actually pretty tasty.
  • For Want of a Nail: All other Universes exist because, apparently, the people chose a better future (but left a Crapsack World in their wake as a result). This-world's-Yuu development became stronger because of the events triggered by Noein and continued by Karasu (both himself, both helping him).
  • Fridge Brilliance: The story isn't about Haruka at all. It's about Yuu spoiler: deciding who he wants to be.
  • Fridge Logic: There are an infinite number of dimensions which are produced from every possibility in every moment in time. Central to the plot is a future event in another dimension which will destroy all dimensions in the multiverse.]] Shouldn't the universe have already ceased to exist? To prevent Natter from reaching critical mass, go to the Discussion Page for more detail.
  • Furo Scene: Haruka gets several.
  • Future Badass: Karasu and Fukuro.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Yuu is scared by how cold and intense Karasu is. Karasu is disgusted by his cowardly former self. Furthermore, Noein is yet another future version of Yuu, who despises both of them.
    • Karasu glaring at Yuu earned the honor of page picture for this trope for a very good reason.
  • Gas Leak Coverup: The first appearance of the Shangri'La attackers was explained to the public as a meteorological phenomena. Given their incredible obliviousness, probably it worked for the second time as well.
    • Though for the second one, there were very likely harder to explain, sine Atori's fight left visible marks on the landscape, and there was no team of reality warpers/fixers to cover it up.
  • Generation Xerox.
  • A God Am I: Noein shows shades of this. Although he doesn't outright say it, his plan is to destroy all the Multiverse, stay safe preferably with a worthy Haruha and see things start again. He strongly implies he won't allow himself
  • Go Mad from the Revelation: Poor Noein just tried to get his loved one back, but in the process he encounters all the horrors happening in most timespaces, and decided to start over.
  • Go Out With A Smile: The Haruka of Karasu's dimension. Some of the Dragon Knights too.
  • Good Smoking Evil Smoking: Kōriyama and Shinohara, respectively.
  • Hacker Cave: Tobi sets one up with some Extreme Graphical Representation thrown in for good measure.
  • Hair Antennae: Isuka.
  • Hair Colors.
  • Hard Work Always Works: Yuu's mother, and later Yuu seem to think this: if you don't have a talent in something, just bust your hump learning and at least you'll be good at something. Is implied what Noein did to be so advanced in timespace traveling and basically a Physical God.
  • Heel Face Door Slam: Kuina gets hit by one hard.
  • Heel Face Turn: Atori and Kosagi.
  • Heroic Albino: Karasu.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Future Haruka.
    • Also Atori, in the finale.
    • Implied to have happened to all of the Dragon Knights that underwent a Heel Face Turn and stayed in Haruka's world.
  • Hey Its That Voice: Crispin Freeman as Karasu and RichardEpcar as Koriyama.
  • Hilarious Outtakes: Much to the English cast's surprise and glee many of their outtakes, ad-libs, and general screwing around was preserved on the official DVD's. Except Crispin Freeman, his were too dirty.
  • Horned Hairdo.
  • Hot Scientist: Uchida-chan.
  • Idiot Ball: Hey, let's trust our residential Axe Crazy Blood Knight that we can't even trust the he won't kill us on a whim - which he just tried with one of our Nakama - to lead us into desertion from our home world that invested their entire hopes in us to save them, and to stay with said Blood Knight in a world we believe is just an illusion, to fade sooner or later. It's not like he'll use one of us to enrage the good guy and threaten the other with death every other episode until we all die or anything...
  • I Have The High Ground: All of the Dragon Knights do this.
  • Interrupted Suicide: Ai, in the alternative Bad Future shown by Noein. Isami arrives Just In Time.
    • Bad Future Miho attempts to overdose, but is stopped by Atori.
  • Light Is Not Good / Dark Is Not Evil - While Karasu slings dark lightning bolts around in their duel, Ax Crazy Atori throws white lightning. Noein, similarly, decorates his realm like a Buddhist paradise and is clad in pure white.
  • Limited Wardrobe: Considering the span of time the story encompasses, some characters change clothes very rarely.
  • Love Makes You Evil / Love Makes You Crazy: This has Noein written all over it.
  • MacGuffin Girl: Haruka, aka the Dragon Torque.
  • Make A Better World: Noein's goal.
  • Mask Power: Noein often appears as a floating mask.
  • My Future Self And Me.
  • Mood Whiplash: There are a few, but the carcrash that killed Haruka and the others in Noein's timeline is exceptionally jarring. Probably because it was realistic.
  • Morality Pet: Miho turns into one for Atori.
  • Morbid Running Gag: Kuina losing an arm and a limb each time he goes to the "main" Universe. He even Lampshades it by saying the dimension doesn't like him very much. The third time he loses an eye, and fourth a part of his arm, and towards the end he's just a sad cyborg.
  • Nigh Invulnerability: Of a sort. For the Dragon Knights, thanks to mechanical replacements and the bizarre way they take damage, its as if they were made of a uniform shiny substance underneath their skin.
  • Nightmare Fuel: The forces of Shangri'La fall squarely in the Uncanny Valley.
  • Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant: Kōriyama tends to say creepier things even than Haruka.
  • Omnicidal Maniac: Noein's ultimate plan for utopia is to erase the entire multiverse and start it again from scratch.
  • One Steve Limit: Enforced with Yuu. His future self go to extreme lengths to get Faux Symbolic names to be perfectly clear who they're talking about and at the same time not insult anyone.
  • One Way Trip: The removal of the plugs.
  • Open Minded Parent: While the kids teacher rather than a legal guardian, Miss Nijou certainly fits the bill. Whenspoiler: Kurasu lies mortally injured after a battle with the forces of Shangri'La, she is completely unfazed by the fact that the person her students are helping is missing a limb, is bleeding blue sparkles and has no reconizable internal anatomy whatsoever.
    • Oh she is fazed, she just doesn't sit there thinking it through too much.
    • Haruka's mother counts: lets complete strangers in her house, harbinges runaways, gets the mother of her daughter's friend drunk to get her off their back and probably some more.
  • Ouroboros: The motif appears with all the crazy quantum time wizzywigging. A giant one even serves as a portal to (effectively) The Legions Of Hell.
  • Parental Obliviousness: It takes the house disappearing before Haruka's mother realizes something strange might be going on.
    • She tries to trust her daughter a lot and believes she can handle it. Though the house disappearing was a pretty strong straw for her.
  • Parrot Exposition: Kōriyama-san. Almost any scene with him talking to Uchida-san eventually descends into her effectively talking to herself.
  • Peek A Bangs: Karasu.
  • Pet The Dog: Karasu and Baron.
  • Power Born Of Madness: Noein. He was an ordinary high school student until a car crash killed his true love in front of him, after which it's suggested that his single-minded rage alone propelled him to gather followers, take over his Earth, master interdimensional travel and nearly succeed in obliterating everything in the multiverse. Karasu is a badass hero "built" from the madness and desperation to survive of his world, La'Cryma.
  • Powered by a Forsaken Child: La'Cryma wants to do this to Dragon Torque, although in their defense, they didn't know it was a 12-year-old-girl, even less that half the front-line soldiers asked to bring her back knew her. That doesn't stop most of them to try to use her, though.
  • Power Tattoo: The Dragon Knights.
  • Psycho Electro: Atori. He seems to lose his sadistic tendencies after getting and recovering from amnesia, and changing sides in the process. But then he gets left alone with the enemy...
  • Punctuation Shaker.
  • Reality Warper: Haruka.
  • Redemption Equals Death: Atori. Most of the Dragon Knights count.
  • Red Eyes Take Warning: The moment we realize that that's not Karasu.
  • Say My Name: Played rather masterfully in Episode 13 when Karasu is mortally wounded.
  • Schrodinger's Cat: The Schrodinger's Cat scenario is actually an important plot point on two occasions.
    • It's arguable that the entire plot can be boiled down to a schrodinger's cat. Yuu is indecisive about the future. Therefore, many possible futures exist. When he takes control and decides what he's going to do, the path he did not choose disappears.
  • Science Is Bad: Trying to find and use the smallest molecule in existence? You'll open a door to Hell and destroy all of reality single-handedly, even before the mad Big Bad. Unlock a new future for humanity? That'll only cause sorrow in your world, and the coming of a Woobie Destroyer of Worlds. Finance a groundbreaking experiment? Well, you must be a Card Carrying Villain that Would Hurt a Child. Just going through a stroll in the Multiverse trying to find your loved one? Didn't you hear us, it's bad! You'll just Go Mad from the Revelation that the entire Multiverse is in despair, that your friends put any one of yourself in bad situation, and you will result in a Omicidal Maniac. Trust the series, Ambition is Evil.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong.
  • Shamgri La: Shangri'La, obviously.
  • She's A Man In Japan: Tobi was made female in the official English version, due to his feminine hairstyle.
  • Soundtrack Dissonance: The opening song at times seems unifit for such an anime as this.
    • If you bought the DVD, you know they should have chosen one of those alt openings!
  • The Smurfette Principle: Kosagi.
  • Stalker With A Crush / Yandere: Kosagi followed Karasu to Haruka's dimension in order to kill both of them, after realizing her feelings for Karasu were unrequited.
    • Noein is this to Haruka. He's stalking and asking her to join him and generally screwing with her mind for the entire series.
  • Stop Having Fun Guys: Yuu's mother. She gets better.
  • Strange Minds Think Alike: Everyone in the story. For some weird reason, they all instantly identify Layze particles (glowing blue sparks floating upside down in a small area) as blue snow.
  • Talking To Himself: Karasu and Noein, who are voiced by the same person in both the original and the dub. Justified when it's revealed that they're the same person from alternate timelines.
  • The Stoic: Karasu.
  • Techno Wizard / Wrench Wench: Tobi falls somewhere between these two tropes.
  • The End Of The World As We Know It.
  • The Heartless: The forces of Shangri'La are people who surrendered their humanity to go along with Noein's plans.
  • The Mole: Kuina.
  • Theme Naming: The Dragon Knights are all named after birds; Karasu is the Japanese word for crow, for example.
    • Also the names of two of the futures: Shangri-La is a fictional Utopia in the novel Lost Horizon (as well as a term for utopias in general). The lacrimal (La'Cryma) ducts are where tears come from.
      • Actually, "lacrima" means "tear" in Latin. Which is why it's ridiculous that even the official translation went with the nonsensical La'Cryma spelling as if it was just a random fantasy name. (Incidentally, this spelling for "lacrima" comes from the J-Rock band La'Cryma Christi).
        • It's the name of an entire universe. It'd have been nonsensical to rename it.
  • The Multiverse: With each alternate reality being caused by a For Want Of A Nail situation.
  • The Omniscient Council Of Vagueness: One of these rules La'Cryma. At least they're mostly proactive and don't go on "We Wait" mode unless there's something requiring their approval when they hit the Godzilla Threshold. Equally strange enough for such a council, they seem genuinely good (though understandable sent to the breaking point by the events their world went through), but they sure can't handle their military and secret weapons well...
  • The Power Of Friendship: One of the important points of the series.
  • The Power Of Love: This is what ultimately allows spoiler:Karasu and Yuu to defeat Noein.
  • The President's Daughter.
  • Theme Tune Cameo: An instrumental version of "Idea" appears in the last episode.
  • This Is Unforgivable: Said by a twelve year old girl. A twelve year old Reality Warper, mind you.
  • Time Stands Still: Dragon Knights stop time before engaging in battle to make sure there are no bystanders.
  • Time Travel: Subverted: the past apparently can't be changed (because for some reason, you can jump in any other timelines' past except your own).
  • Title Drop: During the first few episodes, each mention of Noein makes the viewer sit up and take notice.
  • Tomboy And Girly Girl: Ai and Haruka respectively.
  • Touched By Vorlons: The Dragon Knights had their quantum structure changed in order to receive super powers.
  • Tsundere: Ai for Isami.
  • Unstoppable Rage: Karasu, whenever Haruka is in danger.
  • Up To Eleven: Karasu is this to Yu as Noein is to Karasu. They're each just a one-step-above worse version than the "more innocent" one below.
  • Variable Terminal Velocity: Haruka is able to catch Yuu by jumping off a cliff after him.
  • Visit By Divorced Dad: Haruka has a "date" with her Dad once every three months, and they still get on well.
  • We Can Rebuild Him: Kuina loses an arm, a leg, an eye to the "main" dimension, and then another half of his face to Karasu. Every time he gets a prosthetic, looking and sounding less and less human (though his spirit and wishes never falter). When dying, he realises what his foolish quest for Shangri'La got him.
  • We Hardly Knew Ye: Isuka.
  • Well Intentioned Extremist: Noein.
  • What Measure Is A Non Human: Anyone outside of La'Cryma is considered just an illusion and is treated as an object. While they seem to believe their dogmas, it's not unlikely to think this way of thinking was enforced to keep their people from going to other worlds or sympathize with them. On the other hand, they're taking a lot of precautions to not sturr things up in other dimensions they go to.
    • Noein displays traits of believing this, though on the other hand he's pretty sure the sufferings are real and wants to stop them.
  • Who Watches the Watchmen: Kuina has access to most logs of his Dragons, and judges everyone for what they've done. But when he encounters Noein and again talks about his deal while in a trip, nobody brings this up to him, or to the council.
  • White Haired Pretty Boy: Karasu.
  • Woobie Destroyer Of Worlds: Noein.
  • The World Is Not Ready to harness the full power of quantum physics of for parallel worlds.
  • You Shall Not Pass: Atori, in a Crowning Moment Of Awesome.
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